If you hit one end of a long metal pipe with a hammer, the person at the other end of the pipe
If you hit one end of a long metal pipe with a hammer, the person at the other end of the pipe will hear a double blow. Why?
When hitting the metal of the pipe at the point of impact, a sound source will arise associated with the reaction of the material to the impact – in this place, a short-term vibration of the local area of the pipe will occur.
As a result, the vibration of the metal will generate a sound wave in the air. The sound of the impact will spread far across the area.
But a person who happens to be at the other end of the pipe (the pipe is quite long, say, hundreds of meters) will hear a double blow. So, the sound, brought, in fact, by the pipe, spreading over the metal, will first reach him.
And only then, seconds later, he will hear the sound of a blow that reached him through the air.
For comparison: the speed of sound in metal (iron) is 5850 m / s, and the speed of sound in air is 340 m / s.